It has grown on me!: 01/2024

Thursday, January 25, 2024

How to Cook Quick and Easy Oyakodon, Japanese Chicken and Egg Bowl

When I am super hungry and don't have much time for cooking, I cook oyakodon (親子丼), Japanese chicken and egg bowl. Oyako (親子) means parents and children in Japanese. Don (丼) means Japanese rice bowl dish. Because chickens and eggs are parents and children, it's called oyakodon in Japan. Oyakodon is pretty easy to cook. If you already have cooked rice in your kitchen, it takes 15 minutes to cook oyakodon. (By the way, I always cook a large amount of white rice on weekends. I wrap one serving of cooked rice with plastic wrap, and keep them in my freezer. I microwave it for two minutes to get nice and hot cooked rice every day.) Anyway, I'm going to share how to cook oyakodon with you.

You can cook oyakodon in 15 minutes if you already have cooked rice in your kitchen.

Ingredients for Two Servings

1/2 Cup of Water

1 Teaspoon of Hondashi

2 Tablespoons of Soy Sauce

2 Tablespoons of Mirin

1 Tablespoon of Sugar

1/2 Lb of Chicken Thigh (Cut into Bite Sizes)

1/2 Onion (Sliced)

4 Eggs

2 Servings of Cooked White Rice

2 Tablespoons of Minced Green Onions

1. Put water, hondashi, soy sauce, mirin and sugar in a sauce pan over high heat. Bring it to a boil.

2. Add chicken and onions. Cook them over high heat for six minutes. Then, turn off the heat.

3. 【Make One Serving at A Time】Move a half of the cooked ingredients of Step 2 to a shallow pan. Heat them over medium high heat. (Ideally, you should cook one serving of oyakodon in a shallow oyakodon pan at a time, but I use a sauce pan for one serving and a small flying pan for another serving.)

4. Pour two Eggs (beaten) over it for one serving. Cover the lid, and cook it for 60 to 30 seconds.

5. Serve it over rice. Top it with green onions.

6. Enjoy!

If you are in Japan and have never had oyakodon before, I recommend you to try oyakodon at Nakau (なか卯), Japanese fast food bowl restaurant. Nakau's oyakodon is very famous and affordable. :)

Nakau's Oyakodon

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★You can find my recipe entries through my Pinterest.

Thursday, January 18, 2024

Review : Conrad Tokyo Fitness Center - Luxury Fitness Gym

As I mentioned in my previous entry, Hotel Room Tour and Review - Conrad Tokyo in Japan, my husband and I stayed in Conrad Tokyo in 2022.

If you are staying in Conrad Tokyo, you can access to the fitness center (fitness gym, pool, and public bath) for free. If you are a member of Conrad Spa & Fitness Club, you can access to the fitness center without staying in Conrad Hotel. However, Conrad Spa & Fitness Club initiation fee is 1,750,000 yen (about $12,500), and the annual fee is 495,000 yen (about $3,520). In addition, the annual shoe locker rental fee is 20,000 yen (about $142). It's too expensive for many people. That's why while staying in Conrad Tokyo, you should enjoy their luxury fitness center for free.

Fitness Center (29th Floor)

Fitness Area Hours
・Locker Area : 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.
・Fitness Gym : 24 hours
・Pool : 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Fitness Gym Area

At the gym area, there were headphones, bottles of water and sanitizer.

The gym area was nice and spacious and had many kinds of exercise equipment. We went to the fitness gym area around 6 a.m., and it was not crowded at all.

We decided to use the cross trainer, which is my favorite exercise. While exercising, I found that there was the pool area in the front of me.

Powder Room / Locker Room

After working out at the gym, I went to the public bath areas, which are separated by gender. As you might know, you cannot wear swimsuit in a public bath in Japan. Because it was early morning, there was nobody there. There were four Jacuzzi tubs and two kinds of sauna, dry sauna and steam sauna. There were some shower rooms, and you can use shampoo, conditioner and body wash.

After enjoying the Jacuzzi and sauna, I moved to the powder room to get ready.

There were DHC Olive Gold skincare products, oil makeup remover, keshosui lotion, moisturizing gel, hair lotion, body and hand lotion.

Repronizer Hair Dryer

There was a high-end hair dryer, Repronizer 4D Plus. Because of this hair dryer, my hair was nice and silky. :)

After that, we went to the restaurant, Cerise, to have breakfast. I will write about it next time.

These are my entries related to Conrad Tokyo.

■Hotel Room Tour and Review - Conrad Tokyo in Japan

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■Review : Conrad Tokyo Breakfast Buffet - Cerise

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■Hotel Room Tour and Review - Hilton Tokyo in Shinjuku, Tokyo Japan

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Thursday, January 11, 2024

How to Cook Creamy Chicken Tikka Masala

I sometimes cook this homemade chicken tikka masala. It's pretty easy to cook and tastes really good. It's creamy, spicy and flavorful. My husband and I really love our homemade chicken tikka masala. Today, I'm going to share how I cooked chicken tikka masala with you.

Ingredients for 6 Servings

1 to 2 Lb of Chicken (Cut into Bite Sizes) (*I sometimes use leftover Costco rotisserie chicken, so I don't need to cook meat and I can skip step 1.)

2 Teaspoons of Cumin Seeds

4 Tablespoons of Ginger (Minced)

4 Cloves of Garlic(Minced)

2 Onions (Minced)

2 Teaspoons of Turmeric

4 Tablespoons of Garam Masala

2 Teaspoons of Sugar

4 Tomatoes (Cut in Dices) or 28 oz of Canned Diced Tomatoes

180 ml of Heavy Whipping Cream or Plain Yogurt

1/2 Cup of Cilantro

1. Heat oil in a pan over high heat and saute chicken until chicken surface turns white. Move the cooked chicken onto the plate.

2. Heat oil in a pan over high heat. Add cumin seeds, ginger, garlic in it.

3. Add onions and cook them for 5 minutes.

4. Add turmeric, garam masala and sugar in it. Cook them for 2 minutes.

5. Add tomatoes, and cook them for 5 minutes.

6. Add chicken of step 1. Cook them until chicken is thoroughly cooked.

7. Add whipping cream or plain yogurt. Stir and cook them for 3 minutes.

8. Serve and top it with cilantro. Enjoy!

I purchased this Greek pita bread at my local grocery store in order to substitute it for naan. The chicken tikka masala went well with this flat bread. :)

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Thursday, January 4, 2024

What I Ate Traditional Japanese Foods for This New Year's Holidays

New Year's holidays, which are called oshogatsu (お正月) in Japanese, are the most important holidays for Japanese people. Today, I'm going to share with you what I ate this New Year's holidays.

Traditional Japanese Food for New Year's Eve

It's a Japanese traditional that osoji (大掃除), big cleaning, is done in late December before the New Year comes. Indeed, my husband and I did osoji late December. The last meal before the New Year came was toshikoshi soba. It's a Japanese traditional to eat soba noodles, which are called toshikoshi soba (年越しそば, 年越し蕎麦).

Toshikoshi Soba (年越し蕎麦)

This time, my husband cooked soba noodles with prawn tempura. We purchased our favorite frozen prawn tempura at Costco.

Traditional Japanese Foods for New Year

Japanese New Year (Shogatsu) runs January 1 through January 7 (O-shogatsu, 大正月) or January 15 (Ko-shogatsu, 小正月). Specially, January 1 through January 3 is called sanganichi (三が日), and people visit shrines and meet families and relatives for the first time in the year and enjoy Japanese traditional New Year's foods.

Osechi (おせち料理)

During New Year's holiday, people in Japan eat Osechi (おせち), Osechi Ryori (おせち料理). Osechi is a collection of lucky foods such as chikuzenni, kuromame, kamaboko and so on.

On New Year's Eve, we cooked these Osechi dishes all day long for coming New Year.

Zoni (雑煮), Mochi Soup
During New Year's holiday, it's a Japanese traditional to eat mochi. Specially, mochi soup which is called zoni (雑煮) or ozoni (お雑煮) is commonly eaten in Japan during New Year's holiday.

This time, my husband cooked this chicken zoni. We were glad that our Japanese friend gave us this homemade mochi before New Year's holidays. You can also purchase Japanese mochi on Amazon.

Chikuzenni (筑前煮), Nishime (煮しめ)

I cooked this chikuzenni as our Osechi. I used some vegetable, konjack and chicken. If you are interested in how to cook chikuzenni, you can check out my previous entry, How to Cook Chikuzenni, Japanese Simmered Chicken and Vegetables.

Simmered Prawn, Ebi No Umani (海老のうま煮)

Prawn and shrimp are called Ebi in Japanese. Ebi symbolizes a wish for a long-life because of the appearance. When you are very old, you will probably have a bend waist.

On New Year's Eve, we went to Costco to purchase fresh prawns for Osechi. It was my first time to cook this simmered prawn and it turned out so good. :)

Grilled Cheese Mayonnaise Prawns (海老マヨチーズ焼き)

Because we purchased a lot of fresh prawns at Costco, I decided to cook grilled cheese mayonnaise prawns. These were so tasty! I told my husband that these tasted like ones we had during a wedding party. I would like to cook these again some day!

Kazunoko (数の子, かずのこ), Herring Roe

Kazunoko (かずのこ) is herring roe. Kazu (数, かず) means number and Ko (子) means child, so Kazunoko symbolizes a lot of children and a large family.

My coworker gave me this kazunoko for New Year's food. When I was a child in Japan, boxes of kazunoko were in our refrigerator during New Year's holidays. However, it was my first time to prepare kazunoko for osechi. I didn't know that it took so many hours to prepare before I could enjoy it. Anyway, I was glad that I had a chance to eat Japanese kazunoko in the U.S. on New Year's holidays. (Kazunoko is so expensive in the U.S.)

Kuromame (黒豆), Sweetened Japanese Black Beans

Kuromame (黒豆) is black soy beans, and mame symbolizes working diligently and healthily.

Just like the previous year, I cooked kuromame again. You can check out my previous entry, How to Cook Kuromame for Osechi, Traditional Japanese Foods for New Year Holiday.

It's not a traditional Japanese New Year's food, but my husband made a lot of taiyaki on New Year's Eve!

It's because tai (鯛) is a lucky fish! Tai (鯛, たい) means a red snapper, sea bream, in Japanese. People in Japan eat a broiled red snapper on happy events such as on a wedding day, baby's 100th day, New Year's day and etc. Auspicious is called medetai (めでたい) in Japanese. "Tai ha medetai (鯛はめでたい)" means tai is a good luck fish. That's why taiyaki is a kind of a good luck fish-shaped cake and can be eaten all year round.

Because my husband cooked anko (あんこ), sweetened red bean paste, to eat with mochi for New Year's holidays, he also cooked taiyaki (たい焼き), Japanese fish-shaped cake filled with sweetened red bean pastes. You can also check my previous entries, How to Make Perfect Anko, Japanese Sweetened Red Bean Paste, and , How to Make Perfect Taiyaki, Japanese Fish-Shaped Cake.

Happy New Year's Holidays!

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Monday, January 1, 2024

Happy New Year 2024! - It's the Year of the Dragon

Happy New Year Everyone!

Did you know that 2024 is the Year of the Dragon (辰年)?

It has been custom that many people in Japan send New Year's cards, which is called nengajyo (年賀状), to friends, families and business associates. Many New Year's cards have illustration of the animal of the year in them.

I made this nengajyo for my readers. With using my iPad and Logitech iPad Pencil, I drew this one referring to Manga Nihon Mukashibanashi (まんが日本昔ばなし), which is a Japanese animated folktales and was ran from 1975 through 1994 in Japan. When I was a child, I watched Manga Nihon Mukashibanashi in Japan every week. These flying dragon and a child holding a den-den daiko (でんでん太鼓), pellet drum, in his hand were seen during the opening theme song. This scene of the dragon is my favorite childhood memory of Japan.

Wish you a very happy new year!

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